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PvP Season 15 to end "in a couple of weeks"
For those of us waiting with bated breath (look it up, that's how it's spelled) for any idea of when Patch 6.0 will be dropping, the answer is soon. Blizzard has done a warning post for the end of the season, and in their own words, it's not far off. After many grueling bouts in the Arenas and Battlegrounds, the time has nearly come to see who will reign supreme in this action-packed PvP season. Prepare to fight your last battles, and remember-to the victors go the spoils! Arena and Rated Battleground Season 15 will be coming to an end in a couple of weeks. Once the season wraps, we'll begin an approximately two week process to determine end-of-season reward eligibility. So, since today was a rolling restart maintenance day, it's fair to speculate that it'll be two weeks into October, most likely October 14th, when Patch 6.0 drops. That falls into line with the usual month between the pre-expansion patch and the actual expansion that we saw in Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria. Please remember, if you're an Arena/Rated BG player waiting for your end of the season rewards, to not transfer your character to another realm until after the PvP season has ended if you want to remain eligible.
Patch 6.0.2: PvP season 15 ends
In the spirit of get it done soon that we see getting more and more prevalent as patch 6.0.2 gets closer, here's some news about PvP Season 15. Namely, it's ending as soon as the patch drops. This means several things - there will be no Arenas or Rated BG's after the patch, all Conquest Points will be converted to Honor, with excess Honor above 4000 points being converted to gold. Blizzard - Patch 6.0.2 PTR Patch Notes PvP Season 15 comes to an end with the launch of Patch 6.0.2. (Date has not been determined yet.) Conquest Points will be converted into Honor Points, and any Honor above the cap of 4,000 will be converted into in-game currency at a rate of 35 silver per point. Season 15 items will have Conquest costs converted into Honor Points equivalent to their previous Conquest Point cost, with the exception of any items that have a rating requirement. Season 15 items with rating requirements will no longer be available for purchase. Note that Arena and Rated Battleground matches will not be available until PvP Season 16 begins. source So there you have it - the upcoming end for Season 15 is as soon as the patch itself (which we still have no date for) and when it comes, the usual conversions will commence. If you're trying to hit a certain rating, you have been warned.
Deserter debuff changes for Random and Rated PvP
PvP has long has the Deserter debuff, which means that there's a cost to simply dropping a game rather than taking the loss. However, that system is being changed in terms of how it functions in rated PvP like Arenas and rated battlegrounds. For starters, it's being applied to said rated PvP. In addition to now getting the Deserter debuff for rated PvP, how it works for random BG's will also be changing. Lore - Upcoming Deserter Hotfixes for Rated PvP As part of our continued efforts to curb exploitive behavior and improve the overall PvP experience for our players, we're applying a couple hotfixes that will make a few changes to how the Deserter debuff functions, and also apply it to Arenas and Rated Battlegrounds. Once these hotfixes are applied, a player who leaves an Arena or Rated Battleground before anyone in the match has entered combat will, at first, be given a 5-minute Deserter debuff. If they leave another match prematurely within a 20-minute window, the duration of the Deserter debuff will increase by 5 minutes each time (and the 20-minute window will restart), to a maximum of 20 minutes. The debuff will also apply if a player leaves the queue (or ignores it) once the match is ready and they're given the prompt to enter. The Deserter debuff given for leaving a Random Battleground early will also be changed to begin at 5 minutes (and increase by 5 minutes for each subsequent desertion), but otherwise the rules will stay the same. Leaving a Random Battleground in progress at any point before it's finished will give the Deserter debuff, and leaving or ignoring the prompt to enter a Random Battleground will not. We're currently in the process of preparing and testing the hotfix, but hope to push it live with this week's maintenance period. source The change seems aimed at allowing players who just drop occasionally to get back into PvP relatively quickly, while becoming more onerous if you're a serial dropper. Rated PvP will also get the debuff if they queue but don't accept the queue, while randoms will not, which seems reasonable to me.
Hotfix to address issues with flag carriers in rated battlegrounds
It's tough carrying the flag in Warsong Gulch or Twin Peaks, primarily due to the Focused Assault debuff which increases the damage you take when you pick up the flag -- but it's about to get a little tougher for tanks playing these rated battlegrounds. According to CM Lore, in rated battlegrounds tanks who carry the flag should be getting a bigger debuff -- 50% additional damage compared to the 20% others get. However, a bug is currently treating tanks just like everyone else, so expect a hotfix soon (no restarts required). In addition to fixing debuff damage, there are plans to add the same kind of debuff system to orb carriers in rated Temple of Kotmogu and cart carriers in rated Deepwind Gorge. These changes will take effect next maintenance cycle. All of these changes are for rated battlegrounds only, where they should make it a bit easier to take out enemy flag carriers -- and tougher to keep your own alive.
Further MMR adjustments for Rated Battlegrounds
You may recall that, a little while back, WoW Insider posted about the changes being made to MMR tolerance in order to repair the ladders after a bug. It seems, unfortunately, that these changes did not go far enough to rectify the issues for players of Rated Battlegrounds. It makes sense that, for this far less played discipline, MMR issues have not self-corrected. As a result of this, matches played are still resulting in 0 point rating gains with wins, which is disheartening at best. So Blizzard has come up with a simple solution that might have been a faster and more popular fix to the initial issue -- increase everyone's rating to get it closer to their current MMR. If these terms are confusing, I made a fair attempt at explaining them in the last post. This, coupled with the initial increased tolerance in MMR to rating parity, should result in everyone gaining points for wins. Hit the break for Lore's full post.
Do Battlegrounds need tutorials?
When I first starting doing Battlegrounds way back in vanilla, it was pretty easy to learn exactly what the rules were. Not because I went and researched the individual Battlegrounds, but because I had a team of guildmates that were happily running the new feature over and over for a fun break from raiding. In later years, I joined a guild that was by and large devoted to PvP content over PvE. With the original honor grind being as ruthlessly difficult as it was, I was happy to help heal those in the guild working on that arduous trek to High Warlord -- and I never had to ask what to do in a Battleground. I was well informed from the get-go. But at some point after Burning Crusade, I simply lost interest in PvP. I think it was after the introduction of arenas. Most of my PvP-oriented friends became absolutely enthralled with the idea of doing arenas, gaining ranks, and more importantly earning those hard-won season's end mount rewards. It wasn't that I didn't have an interest in the mounts, or that I didn't like PvP anymore. It was more that I knew, logistically speaking, that I wasn't particularly good at PvP. It didn't matter so much when the games were just a matter of win or lose, but when it came to arenas, I really didn't want to ruin the carefully-earned rankings my friends had obtained. I came from an era of the original honor grind. Rankings were sacred back then. Consequentially, I don't really do PvP anymore. Not because I don't enjoy a good Battleground, but because at this stage in the game, I haven't the faintest idea what to do in any of them.
Warlords of Draenor: Blizzard's Group Finder will allow leaders to filter applicants
Blizzard Community Manager Lore has been all over the forums talking about how Blizzard will build their cross-realm group finder. The latest update for the would-be cross-realm raider, world boss killer or PvPer is as follows: Lore Quote: But with OQ you can put restrictions, view how well they've done before, and how well they're liked with the public. Openraid had a reputation how well people liked your raids and gave you upvotes. Is there any way they will add something like that to help people avoid groups lead by bad players, mean leaders or elitist jerks? We do want to provide some options for group leaders to put some restrictions for who can and can't request to join their group. We don't want to do it in a way that encourages people to be too heavy-handed, but we also want to make the system easy and intuitive to use, and feel it's better for everyone if the system lets leaders be upfront about who they're willing to bring along. Basically, we want to avoid a situation where you can be invited to a group and then immediately be kicked when the leader inspects your gear and finds you're 10 item levels lower than he or she is looking for (and then have to repeat that process until you eventually either find a group that will bring you or give up entirely). We'd rather do our best to make sure you only see groups that you've actually got a shot at running with :) source
PvP Season 13 ends August 27th
You read that headline right -- Tuesday, August 27th, our 13th PvP season will be at its end. For one week after that date, there will be the usual accounting process to see who gets the PvP titles and rewards as both the Arena and Rated Battlegrounds seasons will be in abeyance. Conquest points will be converted to honor if not spent by that time, and any honor points over 4000 will be converted to gold, as has generally been the case during previous end of season weeks. At present, Season 14 is expected to begin one week after the end of Season 13. If this follows the pattern of previous seasons this expansion, we're on track for patch 5.4 to drop the same day as Season 13's end (Patch 5.2 dropped on March 5th, the same day Season 12 ended) or within that one week period. So this is a really good benchmark for how close we are to patch 5.4 - it won't come before the end of Season 13, but it may come that day. Keeping in mind that there can always be delays, dates can be moved back, and that no date for patch 5.4 has been announced, it definitely feels like it's getting closer. For the full announcement leap behind the cut with us.
How to find a rated battleground team
Since Blizzard "fixed" the expansion-long "bug" that allowed players to max out their conquest points through arenas or random battlegrounds, rated battlegrounds, which for the purpose of this column will be referred to as RBGs, have become necessary content for players to max out their cap every week. And maxing out your conquest cap every week is, until patch 5.3 at least, something you would do well to be getting on with. The trouble is that finding a rated battleground team is not exactly straightforward, especially if you're a player who's a little new to the PvP side of the game, so WoW Insider thought we'd run down some of our top tips for finding an RBG team. Of course, there's no cast-iron guarantees here -- we can't be absolutely certain that, even if you follow this to the letter, you categorically will find an RBG team to play with every week. That's up to you. But we can arm you with knowledge for your team-finding attempts! Get Geared This is pretty important, as it's essentially the first hurdle you're going to have for getting into rated battlegrounds. In order to gain entry to a team, whether you're a good PvPer or not, you need to convince people to bring you. Apart from having very high ratings and the like, which isn't usually viable for the newer PvPers this guide is mostly aimed at, one thing people are definitely going to be looking for is gear.
Blizzard reversing some short-term PvP suspensions
WoW Insider recently posted about Blizzard taking decisive action against players who had been discovered win-trading. In the original post we also reported that Nakatoir had been very firm that these suspensions had been thoroughly investigated and would not be reverted. Bashiok posted the following today: Bashiok Earlier this week, several player accounts were given short suspensions and had their ratings wiped for being involved in Rated Battleground win-trading. Upon further review, we determined that some of the players initially identified as cheating may not have purposefully participated in the exploitive behavior, and as a result, we're in the process of lifting suspensions and restoring ratings to all but the most egregious offenders. This process should be completed following the Tuesday maintenance. As always, our goal is to identify cheaters while making sure people playing by the rules aren't inadvertently penalized. Rest assured that we'll continue to take action against players who aren't competing in the spirit of fair play. source This comes as a bit of a surprise, although WoW Insider's original post did point out the difficulties of discerning, in some cases at least, players who had involuntarily faced win-trading teams, from players who had actively engaged in win-trading. Nonetheless, the attitude that suspending innocent players is worse than letting a few guilty players get away with cheating is probably one to be applauded. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Suspensions issued for win-trading bug
Blizzard Community Manager Daxxarri posted on the forums today regarding a Win-Trading bug. Daxxarri Providing an environment where players can compete in the spirit of fair play is extremely important to us, particularly in rated Player versus Player combat. As part of that commitment we regularly monitor gameplay, and have discovered an issue where some Rated Battleground teams have exploited the queuing system to obtain high team ratings and engage in win trading. These, and all, exploitative activities are absolutely prohibited. We will investigate the situation carefully, and players that have been found to have participated in exploitation will be subject to the appropriate actions against their World of Warcraft accounts. In the meantime, we are currently working to resolve any remaining issues with the queue system to prevent this behavior in the future. source Punishments in the form of suspensions have already begun to appear, as well as rating resets for all players suspected of being involved in win-trading. As forum posters have been quick to point out, the trouble Blizzard's team faces is that many players have faced these win-trading teams, despite not actively engaging in win-trading themselves. This issue means that, apparently, some players are affected who never engaged in exploiting intentionally, but it can be difficult to be sure who is who. Nakatoir adds the following: Nakatoir After a thorough investigation and liaising with multiple departments, we can confirm that the recent wave of actions taken against Rated Battleground exploitation and win trading are indeed correct. The team of investigators have made sure to avoid any false positives and we will not be overturning any of the actions taken. source Encouragingly, several prominent PvP streamers who have actively participated in win-trading using this exploit have already received suspensions and been stripped of their ill-gotten rating. Time will tell whether the new PvP gearing system has any impact on this behavior, but it seems unlikely, given that, for many, rating and titles are incentive enough to exploit the system. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Blizzard takes a stand against pre-made battleground groups
Blizzard Community Manager Daxxarri has been very active in the past 24 hours in a topic on the patch 5.1 changes to battleground queues. He's been responding to criticism of these changes, and, at the same time, being characteristically forthright on the issue of pre-mades. Quote: if you break it down, what does a full oQueue premade bring to the table that is unfair? I'll try to break it down as clearly as I can: Any addon that enables a full, organized Battleground group to queue against a randomly assembled group is creating a scenario where that coordinated group has a huge advantage. That is not in the spirit of the experience we want to provide in the normal Battleground queue. Playing with friends is fun and important, but it shouldn't come at the expense of the spirit of the game nor the fun of others. The normal Battleground queue is for players to jump in and play against other players in a similar situation. We realize that it's not a perfect system, and we're still looking at ways to improve normal Battleground queues further. Regardless, it's not meant for organized groups to "pug stomp" and get quick Honor. We have built in outlets for players that want to organize--if a competitive, social experience was really the goal, then there are clear ways to achieve that. The ultimate effect that this kind of queuing has had is to drive players away from PvP. Perhaps it's been a long time since you've been in a random group, but a lot of players will see that they're up against a premade and simply quit. At best, they suffer through it. To an extent premade groups count on this. Heck, one of the popular addons announces opposing players that appear to have rage quit. Addons aren't really a viable solution for botting issues, but we do take those issues seriously and we'll continue our work on improvements to the Battleground system, including better ways to deal with botting and other exploitative gameplay. source
Conquest Point hotfix: making it harder to PvP
This has been an unfolding drama over the past few days, and for me is one of those moments where, even making the best effort, I literally cannot understand where Blizzard are going with a change to the game. For a while now, the Conquest system has remained the same. If your rating in either arenas or rated battlegrounds is below around 1550, your arena point cap is 1350 for the week. The total cap is 1650, but in order to reach that higher cap, you need to do battlegrounds. If you're doing rated battlegrounds, you can get all the way to 1650, but not with arenas, unless your rating is high enough. So, when players noticed they weren't getting their conquest above 1350, they took to the forums.
PvP Season 12 has begun
It's time to spend your honor points on some Dreadful gear and get back into the rated PvP game, as Season 12 began today. All ratings have been reset and the level 90 rated battlegrounds and arenas are open for play. Two new stats have been introduced to PvP gear this expansion: PvP Power and PvP Resilience. For more information about these stats and the difference between PvP and PvE gear, see this helpful Blood Sport guide. Wowhead has a preview of the new gear, where to get it, and the prices of all the pieces that are currently in game. Their model viewer will show you how the new outfits will look on your character, as well. So assemble your teams and get to it! For the Horde! [Insert Alliance battlecry here.] The full announcement from Blizzard is after the break.
Shifting Perspectives: Resto's dismal PvP performance, and why it might get better
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat, bear, restoration and balance druids. This Tuesday, death is common to all trees. I'm not much of a PvP player. I enjoy random battlegrounds, particularly when I'm healbotting someone who cares whether I live or die, but I lack a certain something when it comes to better performance. I think that something is called talent, or perhaps just luck. We might even call it gear. Regardless, I'm not a great PvPer, so I usually sit on the sidelines and observe while the people who are great PvPers argue about arena team composition and rated battleground strategy. These people have not been enthusiastic about restoration druids in Cataclysm. That's not normal. Resto has been a strong PvP spec since season two of The Burning Crusade (although we need to make an exception for the dismal season five at the beginning of Wrath of the Lich King), so it was a surprise to see such widespread ambivalence among the PvP population. However, there does seem to be a broad consensus about why resto has so many problems in PvP, and people are cautiously optimistic that Mists of Pandaria will be better.
Blizzard MVPs create Cross-Realm Rated Battlegrounds site
First, we had a cross-realm raid group site. Now, Blizzard forum MVPs Eldacar and Cyaga have created The LFG List, a cross-realm group finder for players to get involved in Rated Battlegrounds. Part of the group's Battlemasters site, The LFG List is currently active in the United States only; other versions will be rolled out after the U.S. version has been running smoothly for a while. How do you get onto the list? Well, that's simple! If you are ready for a Battleground or two within the next hour, head over to the start page and choose your faction. That will take you to a page with an IRC window and an entry screen below it. Type in your realm and your character's name in the entry screen to retrieve your basic details from the Armory. You can add in notes and doublecheck that your main spec and off spec are correct. Note the IRC Name section -- this is where you fill in the name that you're using in the live IRC chat above. This way, you can give yourself an IRC name of your choosing and seek out Rated Battleground buddies with any character. Other IRC users will see your name in the list and can contact you directly -- and you're off! Your entry stays up for an hour, so if you're looking for groups further in advance, you can head over to the Battlemasters Forums and make a post. As an aside, the Horde chat seems currently rather more popular than the Alliance chat, hence the split channels. As a mainly Alliance player myself, I'm not OK with this! So I'm putting the call out to my fellow humans, dwarves, draenei, worgen, gnomes and night elves: People of the Alliance! Get on over to The LFG List and get involved!
Blood Sport: How should you prepare for season 11 PvP?
WoW Insider covers the world of player vs. player action in Blood Sport for fans of battleground, world PvP and Arena play. Steering you to victory is Olivia Grace, who spends most of her time in Azeroth as a restoration shaman turning people into frogs. So you've had a week away from the arena. What have you been up to in that week? Playing in the autumn leaves? Finally cleaning your keyboard? Or maybe you've been frantically gathering a transmogrification set (once you'd got over the fact that you couldn't transmogrify your paladin into a power ranger)? I know I have, and I'm now in love with Kezzik in Area 52! Perhaps you've been running the new dungeons or flirting with the new raid? ...Or ganking your GM in the Darkmoon Faire's Deathmatch Arena, like @trimbleirl. If you are one of the people who has done enough hard work in season 10 to get a title, you should give yourself a pat on the back. Well done! You're well on your way to the upper echelons of PvP, and I hope you climb even higher this season! And if you're one of the people who has been working through Battlegrounds every day to get your conquest points, congratulations! You're going to be among the first to get your grubby mitts on the new gear. But moving on from what you could have been doing to what you could be doing now, what are the top tips to prepare yourself for season 11?
Lichborne: Cataclysm PVP basics for death knights
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done. This is about the time in an expansion's life cycle when PVE content is just getting a little too repetitive, to be frank. With only one instance at the top raid tier and only two dungeons at the top LFD tier, it's pretty tempting to try out a few battlegrounds or an arena or two just to spice things up. Personally, the RBG reward mount is one of my favorite-looking ones out of the whole bunch, so that's even more reason to try this PVP stuff out. This week, we're going to look at some of the most basic stuff you'll need to know if you plan to do some PVP as a death knight.
Honor compensation date announced for recent PVP gear debacle
Blizzard's Bashiok has posted a time frame for the previously announced 4,000-honor point compensation package for players who spent honor on old gear during the week between the PVP Season 9 and Season 10. Any player who spent honor on ilevel 365 gear during the transition week will be awarded a free 4,000 honor points, which can go over the point cap and can be spent on the new, higher tier of Vicious PVP gear. This free honor will be awarded to players during maintenance on July 19 (this coming Tuesday). I think this is a pretty good compensation package for players who were not informed of the change in how PVP gear would be handled this season. The biggest issue from the debacle was that players spent a huge amount of time and effort grinding out honor for ilevel 365 gear during the off-week, then spent it, only to see the gear became useless just days later. Now that work has essentially been restored in the form of new, shiny, over-the-cap honor points. You will not be able to earn more honor points until you dip below the cap again, however.
Blizzard to offer compensation for PVP Season 10 transition woes
Yesterday, we talked about an issue that had PVP players in an uproar: Conquest points were accidentally down-converted to honor points a week early, with excess points converted to gold. On top of that, Blizzard launched a new tier of ilevel 371 gear without warning, just after making ilevel 365 gear available for purchase with honor. Players who spent their points decking themselves out in the latest PVP armor found themselves abruptly faced with the stunning realization that had they saved their points, they could have had better gear. It was a mistake, and it was acknowledged by Zarhym (Blizzard community manager) in a fairly lengthy blue post, along with a mention that Blizzard was exploring some options to try and make it up to players. Happily, it appears those options have been explored, as Blizzard's Bashiok posted today with a proposed solution for compensation: Players who were caught off guard by the change will be provided with 4,000 honor points, stacking over the cap. Players will not be able to accumulate more honor until spending below the 4,000 cap, but that should give PVPers a chance to pick up that new gear. This will not be immediately implemented, as it seems Blizzard is still trying to figure out how, exactly, to determine who was affected by the sudden transition and who was not -- so don't expect those 4,000 points on your character tomorrow. Still, it's nice seeing Blizzard acknowledge something that was clearly a miscommunication in regards to the transition between seasons and that it will be making sure those players caught in the middle of the fumble will be getting something back. Follow after the break for the full announcement from Bashiok.
